written by women’s mental health activist Clare Shaw, herself a survivor of mental instability and frequent admissions to psychiatric wards during young adulthood, Straight Ahead is a collection of poetry depicting loss, closeness, collapse and delight – all the aspects of being alive, including the inevitability of decay. The free verse celebrates evocative patterns of sound and rhythm, and the subjects consider the cruel and wonderful sides of living. An evocative, emotionally resonating collection.

www.groups.google.com/group/alt.books.reviews

“Clare Shaw’s debut collection, Straight Ahead, hints at the emergence of a raw, new poetic voice. Shaw’s work hits – with a deliberate candour that is not cloaked in esoteric or cerebral language. Shaw has a store of excellent ideas that are conveyed without the flowery spirals or frigid coyness of other poetry. The feelings and desire of her characters are like flesh and bone on the page. The poems are not interested in secrets; they are interested in letting them go”

www.skinnymag.co.uk/content/view/4239

“This set of poems by Clare Shaw is rich, deep and diverse. They talk about childhood’s fun and pain, about sorrow for a dead love affair, about the brutality inflicted on children. There are train journeys, both comical and fraught, and descriptions of West Yorkshire’s moor’s wild beauty.

Clare’s original observations and vivid images give the reader shocks of horror, revelation or delight.

I recommend this book not just to poetry lovers, but to all who value writing that is truthful and universal”

www.catalystmedia.org.uk/issues/nerve10/straightahead

“excellent” The Daily Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2003/03/04/balloy04.xml)

Reviews of performance:

“ a strong sense of performance and connection with the audience” (www.literaturenorthwest.co.uk)

“Whoever suggested inviting her is a genius” (Lancaster Litfest offical blog http//www.litfest.org/blogs/index.phd?paged=2).

 "awash with canny northern humour - Her use of language and imagery was astunding" (Ingrid Kent, 16the November 2006 'Morecambe Today')

 “Clare Shaw has risen from a past that many would bury. Instead, she carves chunks from her experience, crafts them into poetry and throws them out to the world, both challenging and informing. Her ability is consummate, and with an unexpected line creates a shudder, a thrill or laughter turning the tone of her work in a new direction. When she reads her poetry, the power of the words infuse with her own dynamism giving a supreme performance. Buy the collection or hear her read – either way it is highly rewarding” (http://www.home.davidgagemack.com/8.html)